Entourage

Therren’s Lament / The end of the entouRAGE?

Therren

30

MAY/11

We took the supplies and escorted the Dwarves from Overlook to Stonefang in high spirits. If we only knew what awaited us in the depths of the mountain, surely we would not have entered. But alas, we cannot glimpse the future, and now “we” is simply “I”.

Our voyage was uneventful until Stonefang. We found the front and inner gates unattended, but could find no evidence to a struggle. We proceeded onwards sensing that something was wrong, but were unable to put our fingers on it. As we progressed, a foul spell came over everyone; The dwarves quarrelled and we were at each other’s throats. When we arrived at the keep, Thane would not let us in, and taunted us. Tor was the one who found the burned out Smithy, with the tunnel leading into the depths of the mountain. We followed him in and quickly overcame two battles that toyed with our minds, perplexing us with foes who did not die and with invisible abominations. Finally our descent was complete, and the source of the unease revealed. A brilliant shard of crystal seemed to be the cause. Tor, always hasty, was quick to charge in and attack the Umbra Hulk and Squid-Spider monster. By the time Salopard got to his side, Tor was horribly wounded and dazed, and in the end, Salopard’s effort was not enough. My two companions fought bravely as I peppered the Umbra Hulk with arrows, but all for not. They fell and only I remained. And still I could not fell the foul beasts.

Grievously injured, with no means to heal, and with the abominable monsters both in my path, I had a horrific decision to make: To fight to the end and to accept sure death or to flee and to return for my dying companions. My shame is my flight, but I am alive to tell the tale. This will be a burden I bear for as long as I live.

My own escape was very much in doubt, as I was harried all the way up to the keep, and only just managed to evade the pursuing Umber Hulk, finishing him with a lucky shot that left me totally spent. I found my way back to the Dwarves, who offered no assistance as I tried to rally and plead with them for aid. I was able to catch my breath between my glances at the Smithy, expecting the horrible monster to emerge at any moment to finish us all. Finally, with my cuts bandaged, I steadied myself for what had to be done next. Alone, I returned to the cave and snuck back into the depth of the mountain where I surprised the foul Spider, unleashing everything I had into its godforsaken hide…yet still it did not fall. I had hurt it though, and it scrabbled away through a small tunnel to its freedom. With no appetite to continue the fight, I destroyed the crystal in the center of the room and instantly felt the oppression that had plagued us all recede. I gathered my companions and hauled them to Caligula who let out a woefull moan at the smell of the fallen halfling. Reluctantly she let me sling them over her back and we set off to the keep. I could not give up. If Tor was able to be resurrected once, perhaps they could both be brought back to the living if I found a healer with haste.

I rue the day Joral stayed in Overlook to work with Bolious, and I’m angered by Tor’s recklessness, which led us into this mess. But most of all, I am shamed by being alive while my companions lie dead, their fate in the hands of a Dwarven high-priest. He offers no promises that I will see them alive again, so I wait and I pray to Melora to look over my friends and return them swiftly to my side.

Joral, Etoella and Bolios are due to arrive in a few weeks, and I am not sure what we shall do. This might be the end of the entouRAGE. All our plans, and the first companions…friends…that I have had since my chidhood are potentially gone. Etoella has lost her appetite for battle and it might be that only Joral and I remain, the black cloaks forevermore a symbol of what we have lost. Perhaps Bolios can return us to Yaun, if the head can fly with my heart so heavy.

Note:Hey, I hope you all know that the decision to retreat was not one made lightly. But given the situation where you were both down to 1 final death save strike each, Therren being down to one hit would kill him, the two guys remaining hitting every attack in the encounter consistently, with both monsters blocking my path to you, no means to heal you, and one the Spider monster only having been hit once in the battle, it was a call I had to make. It sucks and I feel bad about it, but I stayed until the last possible moment and Therren, by personaltiy would have retreated, even without the evil influence playing upon our minds. On a personal note, I also know if I stayed, it was the end of Therren, and I’m not ready to finish playing him yet. And there was no doubt about whether I’d have died. I came down fully charged w/ action point and unloaded 7d12 + 5d6 + 55HP damage on the last guy in 3 rounds aterwards and didn’t kill him. That meant for people to live in the original battle, staying alive for about 10 rounds while 1 shot would have killed me. If I wasn’t so invested in the character, I’d certainly be dead too, but I felt if I could get away I could come back, finish the fight, and bring you guys back in a manner that would let you continue to play these characters if you wanted to. Anyhow, just want you to know I didn’t want to retreat, but in the 2 years we’ve played, we’ve never had a situation where we came to be in a position of certain defeat. We’ve had close calls, but there was always a chance of victory before this encounter, which was a perfect storm of a very difficult encounter, minuses from defences from the previous encounter, bad luck, and our own ineptitude (missing two dailies in round 1, not focus firing, Tor getting so far ahead of Sally/destroyed so early).
- N

Comments

To be fair to Torr, he was really not that far ahead of me. However, Ryan rolled up a storm! Torr was down by the end of Round 2 (to be picked up) and Sally was out of the fight by round 3 (one of those rounds I spent a healing surge!) Those baddies dished out an incredible 86 hp to Sally and however many hps a fully functioning Torr has!

As for being weaken (Will wise) from the last encounter, it is true I was suffering a -4, but that still would have been hitting my regular 21. The only time I was missed I think was when Torr was forced to attacked me.

We are very lucky the neogi decided to run and not attack you – else I think it would have been TPK fosor!

Great write up, by the way Nick. Therran was likely penning this on one of his walks back to the dwarven forge.

Yalax is a cowardly slaver, once bloodied he ran for it. Usually, he’d leave minions to die guarding the rear, but you’d already killed them all. He also needed his Umber Hulk to redig the escape route, which had partially collapsed. Being overconfident in his minions, it didn’t occur to him that he’d need the escape until you guys fought all the way to him. His little spidery legs weren’t used to manual labour, and moving rocks was not his specialty. He genuinely was not expecting Therren to come back before he left.

One thing I didn’t note when giving out the loot: While I gave the value of the loot in Gold Pieces, the loot consisted largely of roughly cut gems and chunks of unprocessed gold ore. Same cash value.

I was pretty sure I could take the Neogi, given that I came back down with a full arsenal for a 1 on 1, and had my heal ability back plus a couple of potions. With the terrain the way it was, the idea would have been to slow him and duck behind corners and try to gain the advantage that way. Mind you, dazing leaves you in a world of hurt…so I guess you never know.

I think our big mistake was not focus firing to start, and Tor and I missing dailies we both should have hit. If we take 1 guy down a few rounds before I feel I have to take flight, things might have been quite different.

On the lighter side of things, neither Tor or Salopard know that Therren booted it, as they were dead at the time :) Will they ever find out about the shame? Will Therren tell them? Will those characters still be played? Only time will tell. :)